THEY sweep into church halls, two smart, well-dressed middle-aged women, with a reputation as popular local poetesses.

Five minutes later they shuffle on stage wearing wrap-around pinnies, rollers and turbans, ready for their turn as long-suffering Lancashire housewives Doris and Elsie.

"We're not exactly Lennon and McCartney," said Anne Wareing, 61, otherwise known as Elsie. "We're more Cissy and Ada!"

Her friend, Kath Eccleston, 57, (Doris), agrees. "But we are a team," she said. "We just enjoy writing poems and performing together."

Anne and Kath met 20 years ago through their work at upmarket fashion store Maureen Cookson's, in Whalley.

"We both had the same sense of humour, so we hit it off immediately," explained Anne. "We're both crackers!"

Their habit of making people laugh meant Anne and Kath were often put in charge of the shop's Christmas entertainment and it was while working on an act for Maureen Cookson's 60th birthday, 14 years ago, that Doris and Elsie were born.

"We were walking about, these two silly women, wearing our mums' clothes and acting daft," recalled Kath. "But people seemed to like it."

The Doris and Elsie poems began following a request from Radio Lancashire for listeners to send in rhymes.

"We've always written poems," said Anne. "And they'd started calling us Doris and Elsie at work, so that was how we signed ourselves when we started sending our poems off to the radio."

Anne and Kath's poems went down a storm with listeners, so much so, they were asked to appear as guests on the programme. They've now made 10 appearances, written two books of poems and even released a CD of readings.

Anne said: "We write about a poem a week. There's a lot of truth in what we write. Our poems are based on real life, only exaggerated a bit. There was one where Doris and Elsie went to a lapdancing club by mistake - now we've never done that!"

For each book sold, 50p goes to Derian House Children's Hospice in Chorley. So far the poetic pair have raised over £300.

Anne and Kath's fame also means they get asked to do readings at different clubs and societies across Lancashire - sometimes in costume.

Anne said: "The ladies just love it. I think the poems make them laugh and they can identify with them."

But without their rollers, they're still not the Doris and Elsie everyone expects to see.

"We met Ted Robbins through out work on the radio," recalled Kath. "And the first time he saw us he said, 'Who are those two dolly birds?' He was expecting to see a pair of old women!"

Anne and Kath's books Beyond Infirmity and To Infirmity and Beyond, published by LinRic, are available from Kaydee Books in Clitheroe.